Microphone arrangement

Abstract

A microphone arrangement comprises a microphone array comprising at least two microphones, each of the at least two microphones providing a microphone output signal, a first adder, configured to provide a microphone array output signal by summing delayed versions of the microphone output signals of each of the at least two microphones, a first filter unit, configured to provide a filtered microphone array output signal, a second filter unit configured to provide a filtered microphone output signal of one of the at least two microphones, and a second adder, configured to provide an output microphone signal by summing the filtered microphone array output signal and the filtered microphone output signal.

The invention claimed is: 
     
         1 . A microphone arrangement comprising:
 a microphone array comprising at least two microphones, each of the at least two microphones providing a microphone output signal;   a first adder, configured to provide a microphone array output signal by summing delayed versions of the microphone output signals of each of the at least two microphones, wherein the microphone array output signal comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component, and each of the delayed versions of the microphone output signals comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component;   a first filter unit, configured to provide a filtered microphone array output signal, the first filter unit is configured to remove the low frequency range and the high frequency range components from the microphone array output signal such that the filtered microphone array output signal only comprises the mid-frequency range component of the microphone array output signal;   a second filter unit configured to provide a filtered microphone output signal of one of the at least two microphones, the second filter unit is configured to remove the mid-frequency range component from the microphone output signal such that the filtered microphone output signal only comprises the low frequency range and high frequency range components of the microphone output signal; and   a second adder, configured to provide an output microphone signal by summing the filtered microphone array output signal and the filtered microphone output signal of one of the at least two microphones.   
     
     
         2 . The microphone arrangement of  claim 1 , wherein the first filter unit comprises a bandpass filter, and the second filter unit comprises a lowpass filter and a highpass filter. 
     
     
         3 . The microphone arrangement of  claim 1 , wherein each of the delayed versions of the microphone output signals comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component, and the microphone array output signal comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component, and wherein
 the first filter unit is configured to remove the high frequency range component from the microphone array output signal such that the filtered microphone array output signal only comprises the low frequency and mid-frequency range components of the microphone array output signal; and   the second filter unit is configured to remove the low frequency and mid-frequency range components from the microphone output signal such that the filtered microphone output signal only comprises the high frequency range component of the microphone output signal.   
     
     
         4 . The microphone array of  claim 3 , wherein the first filter unit comprises a lowpass filter, and the second filter unit comprises a highpass filter. 
     
     
         5 . The microphone arrangement of  claim 1 , wherein the microphone array is a uni-directional microphone array. 
     
     
         6 . The microphone arrangement of  claim 1 , wherein each of the at least two microphones is an omnidirectional microphone. 
     
     
         7 . The microphone arrangement of  claim 1 , wherein for the microphone array output signal and each of the delayed versions of the microphone output signals, the following applies:
 the low frequency component includes frequencies of below 400 to 800 Hz,   the mid-frequency component includes frequencies of between 400 to 800 Hz and 4 to 8 kHz, and   the high frequency component includes frequencies of more than 4 to 8 kHz.   
     
     
         8 . The microphone arrangement of  claim 3 , wherein for the microphone array output signal and each of the delayed versions of the microphone output signals, the following applies:
 the low frequency component includes frequencies of below 400 to 800 Hz,   the mid-frequency component includes frequencies of between 400 to 800 Hz and 4 to 8 kHz, and   the high frequency component includes frequencies of more than 4 to 8 kHz.   
     
     
         9 . A method for operating a microphone arrangement, the method comprising:
 providing at least two microphone output signals by means of at least two microphones of a microphone array;   providing a microphone array output signal by summing delayed versions of the microphone output signals of each of the at least two microphones by means of a first adder wherein the microphone array output signal comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component, and each of the delayed versions of the microphone output signals comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component;   providing a filtered microphone array output signal by means of a first filter unit configured to remove the low frequency range and the high frequency range components from the microphone array output signal such that the filtered microphone array output signal only comprises the mid-frequency range components of the microphone array output signal;   providing a filtered microphone output signal of one of the at least two microphones by means of a second filter unit configured to remove the mid-frequency range component from the microphone output signal such that the filtered microphone output signal only comprises the low frequency range and high frequency range components of the microphone output signal; and   providing an output microphone signal by summing the filtered microphone array output signal and the filtered microphone output signal by means of a second adder.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein each of the delayed versions of the microphone output signals comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component, and the microphone array output signal comprises a low frequency range, a mid-frequency range, and a high frequency range component, and wherein
 providing a filtered microphone array output signal comprises removing the high frequency range component from the microphone array output signal such that the filtered microphone array output signal only comprises the low frequency and mid-frequency range components of the microphone array output signal; and   providing a filtered microphone output signal comprises removing the low frequency and mid-frequency range components from the microphone output signal such that the filtered microphone output signal only comprises the high frequency range component of the microphone output signal.